Value-Added Tax Hike Won't Start until June 2nd

Finance Minister Yair Lapid decided, Sunday, that rise in value-added tax from 17 percent to 18 percent will go into effect at midnight on Saturday night.

The hike was originally scheduled for 24 hours earlier but Chairman Nissan Slomianski asked for the delay to avoid the desecration of the Sabbath that would have been involved in raising the tax at midnight on Friday evening.